The present application relates generally to movement and coordination control of a marine vessel and, more particularly to improved systems and methods for damping unwanted motions of the marine vessel about or along an axis.
In one embodiment, a system is provided for controlling movement to of a marine vessel. An operator controllable device outputs a signal that is representative of an operator-desired rate of position change of the vessel about or along an axis. A sensor outputs a signal that is representative of a sensed rate of position change of the vessel about or along the axis. A rate of position change controller outputs a rate of position change command based upon the difference between the desired rate of position change and the sensed rate of position change. A vessel coordination controller controls movement of the vessel based upon the rate of position change command.
In a preferred embodiment, the system includes a operator controllable device that is a joystick and wherein movement of the joystick is a function of a operator-desired velocity about the yaw axis of the marine vessel. In this arrangement, zero movement of the joystick outputs a desired yaw change rate of zero.
In another embodiment, a method is provided for controlling movement of a marine vessel. A manually controllable device is operated to detect a operator-desired rate of position change of the vessel about or along an axis. An actual rate of position change of the vessel about or along the axis is sensed and a rate of position change command is outputted based upon the difference between the desired rated of position change and the sensed actual rate of position change. Movement of the vessel is controlled based upon the rate of position change command.
In a preferred embodiment, the method controls movement of the marine vessel about the yaw axis. A joystick is operated to output a proportional signal that is a function of the operator-desired velocity of the marine vessel about the yaw axis. The method further can include the step of outputting a desired yaw change rate of zero when there is zero movement of the joystick.